Snippets from the Parish Council

Snippets from the Parish Council Meeting – Monday 1st February

The full Parish Council minutes from this meeting will no doubt be published in due course, but meanwhile AudlemOnline provides an overview / summary of the discussions of our Parish Council representatives.

1) Canal River Trust

The meeting was attended by the Canal and River Trust. Wendy Capelle, the Trust's regional Waterways manager, was absent due to a sudden illness but the meeting was addressed by Allison Caffyn, consultant to the CRT. The CRT nationally is looking to improve attractions on the canal to the mutual benefit of canal users and local communities.

Audlem has been chosen as a good example where ideas for suitable projects might be to the mutual benefit of visitors and the village and its businesses. Links are already in place with ADAPT, and the volunteer Towpath group.

CRT has, therefore, set up activity with consultants to see how they can work with locals:

• to improve canal
• improve visitor experience
• develop the canal as a leisure resource.

To this end, a workshop is planned for the 22nd February in the Methodist Church Hall from 2.00 – 4.00pm where residents are invited to drop in to discuss ideas. The plan would be to collate ideas and report back in three weeks.

It was pointed out that no specific budget was available from the CRT, but there maybe opportunities for funding bids.

Initial feedback from councillors was :

Councillor G. Seddon – What Parish Council Role is expected?

Councillor Siddorn – Increasing number of boats on canal create conflict with fishing activities. Can anything be done?

Councillor Christie – How will the CRT link in with the Neighbourhood Delivery Plan?

Councillor Hill – Locally thought has been given to a Telford Museum since little information is available to canal users / visitors on this important engineer. CRT thoughts would be appreciated.
Also Audlem used to have a very popular raft race. Would it be possible to reinstate that?

2) Neighbourhood Plan

Following the positive Inspector's report on the Neighbourhood Plan the recommended modifications are being made to the plan. A Cheshire East meeting on Friday 5th February will hopefully give the go-ahead for a referendum in March at which it is hoped there will be a good turn out from residents.

3) Local Plan

Local CEC Councillor Rachel Bailey provide an update on the Local Plan programme as follows:

10th February: Strategic sites will unveiled into the public domain.
18th February: Strategic Planning Board
26th February: Full Council meeting looking for permission to send for full public consultation for some 36,000 homes.

Discussion ensued as to whether Audlem Parish Council should speak at these meetings and it was agreed the chairman should seek to do that.

4)Tesco grant

Councillor Seddon reported that the application to Tesco for a grant to provide outside fitness activities on the playing field was not successful.

5) Bridge over the River Weaver

An animated discussion took place on the safety of the Weaver Bridge crossing on Whitchurch road on exiting Audlem. Numerous incidents have taken place over the recent years, including a serious injury to a cyclist.

Cheshire East Highways proposal to extend the 30 mile speed limit to halfway up the hill beyond the bridge was deemed to be inadequate.

The PC highways group was actioned to seek further meetings with the police and Cheshire East Highways to obtain a priority system to prevent further accidents.

6) Communications Policy

A curious item, this, on the agenda. Councillors were asked to sign off a new Communications Policy.
This policy has not been seen on the Parish Council website or for the public to see so it is unclear whether it is a gagging order on Councillors or a genuine attempt to improve communication with residents.

Perhaps some clue may come from the fact that the Chairman reminded Councillors that no communication should take place with the public, newspapers, websites etc without the agreement of the Council!

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.